Travels and Travails of a Mail Order Purchase

When people bellow about the inefficiency of government services, they may not be talking about the U.S. Post Office, an institution that few of us are using these days.  I don't usually track packages.  Usually, they're here before I can turn on the porch light for the delivery person.

I placed an order from The Crystal Garden, a store in South Florida that carries the only incense that I don't find cloying.  Let me tell you about the journey of my package which came by way of the U.S. Post Office's Priority Mail option.

It went from Boynton Beach 50 miles south to Opa Locka.  I thought that was strange, but maybe the regional processing center is much closer by going south than north.  It's possible.

From there, it went to Columbia, South Carolina and then Greenville, South Carolina.  So far, not a surprise--that's the way I would go too.  On Monday, my package was in Greenville, just 50 miles away.  I thought it might be to me by afternoon.

Imagine my surprise when I went back to the tracking feature and found out it was headed to Knoxville, Tennessee.  It probably went right by my house (which is about 5 miles from I 26) to head to Knoxville.  And from there, the journey got stranger.

It went back by my house on its way east to Charlotte, North Carolina.  From there, it was back to Greenville, SC and then on to Hendersonville, North Carolina, just 15 miles away.  But wait!

Wednesday morning, it went BACK to Greenville.  It spent the early hours of Wednesday morning back and forth over the NC/SC border.

Wednesday late morning, I wrote, "And now it is headed to me.  At least, that's what the tracking tells me."  And voila!  Finally, it arrived.

I don't have anything wise to say to sum this up.  I know how much Amazon has spoiled me with overnight delivery options.  I understand that the mail system, with all its component parts, is a wonder; I've studied the nineteenth century and seen how people wrote letters to maximize the use of paper and the mail system which charged by the page.  I could have driven down to get my incense much faster, but I'm happy not to make the drive.  Yet I also don't want delivery drivers to have to drive past my house in 2-4 hour segments over several days to make that delivery either--it seems downright wasteful and so very late stage capitalism that it seemed worth recording here.